Abstract: Must accounts of the phylogenetic emergence of language be framed exclusively in terms of biological or cultural evolution? Assuming that languages are communication technologies whose emergence and manipulations presuppose a brain especially rewired, at some stage of the hominine evolution, to be capable of particular mental activities that set humans apart from non-human primates and other animals, the role of biological evolution can hardly be disputed. The late emergence of the modern brain enabled the emergence of modern language. On the other hand, variation in the ways different populations have structured their respective languages, just like variation in the ways they prepare their foods, produce their musics, and articulate their religions (among other things), underscores the cultural dimension of the emergence of language. Linguistic systems and practices too are ways of doing things and behaving that are specific to particular populations. Human cultures too presuppose a particular brain unique to humans. Thus, biology and culture are not mutually exclusive in the evolution of human languages and other aspects of human cultures. I argue that human cultural phenomena (which include languages) are consequences of a particular biological evolutionary trajectory that is specifically human and produced a uniquely human brain. Cultures do not produce languages; rather, the emergence of the latter contributes to shaping cultures in particular ways that vary from one population to another.
{"title":"THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE AS TECHNOLOGY:","authors":"S. Mufwene","doi":"10.5749/j.ctvnp0krm.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctvnp0krm.12","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: Must accounts of the phylogenetic emergence of language be framed exclusively in terms of biological or cultural evolution? Assuming that languages are communication technologies whose emergence and manipulations presuppose a brain especially rewired, at some stage of the hominine evolution, to be capable of particular mental activities that set humans apart from non-human primates and other animals, the role of biological evolution can hardly be disputed. The late emergence of the modern brain enabled the emergence of modern language. On the other hand, variation in the ways different populations have structured their respective languages, just like variation in the ways they prepare their foods, produce their musics, and articulate their religions (among other things), underscores the cultural dimension of the emergence of language. Linguistic systems and practices too are ways of doing things and behaving that are specific to particular populations. Human cultures too presuppose a particular brain unique to humans. Thus, biology and culture are not mutually exclusive in the evolution of human languages and other aspects of human cultures. I argue that human cultural phenomena (which include languages) are consequences of a particular biological evolutionary trajectory that is specifically human and produced a uniquely human brain. Cultures do not produce languages; rather, the emergence of the latter contributes to shaping cultures in particular ways that vary from one population to another.","PeriodicalId":230813,"journal":{"name":"Beyond the Meme","volume":"141 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124466950","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"WRITING IN EARLY MESOPOTAMIA:","authors":"M. Maiocchi","doi":"10.5749/j.ctvnp0krm.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctvnp0krm.13","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":230813,"journal":{"name":"Beyond the Meme","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129389095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this chapter, I argue that the study of cultural evolution would benefit from model systems that are analogous to the model organisms studied in biology and that patented technology would make an excellent model system. My argument has three main steps. First, I note an important epistemic benefit provided by model organisms in biology: knowledge about a model organism illuminates nonmodel organisms both by providing a baseline for comparison with nonmodels and by allowing us to extrapolate knowledge about the model to similar nonmodel organisms. Model organisms are often relatively easy to learn about and understand, so information about the model organisms accumulates from many perspectives, and this information becomes increasingly integrated over time. Second, I argue that the analog of model organisms, which we can refer to as model cultural systems, provides analogous epistemic benefits for the study of cultural evolution. Or, at least, a model cultural system would provide those epistemic benefits if it existed. Third, I argue that patented technology has all the hallmarks of an excellent model system for at least three important aspects of cultural evolution: the way traits flow in the hyperparental genealogies that are characteristic of cultural evolution, the openended innovation characteristic of many cultural systems, and the new automated methods and tools for mining huge digital data sets to visualize and quantify the evolution of cultural traits. Patented technology nicely illustrates these three aspects of cultural evolution and provides a relatively easy way to learn more about all three. Although the standard methodologies for investigating cultural evolution do not include things like model organisms in biology, this is an unfortunate 6
{"title":"PATENTED TECHNOLOGY AS A MODEL SYSTEM FOR CULTURAL EVOLUTION","authors":"M. Bedau","doi":"10.5749/j.ctvnp0krm.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctvnp0krm.9","url":null,"abstract":"In this chapter, I argue that the study of cultural evolution would benefit from model systems that are analogous to the model organisms studied in biology and that patented technology would make an excellent model system. My argument has three main steps. First, I note an important epistemic benefit provided by model organisms in biology: knowledge about a model organism illuminates nonmodel organisms both by providing a baseline for comparison with nonmodels and by allowing us to extrapolate knowledge about the model to similar nonmodel organisms. Model organisms are often relatively easy to learn about and understand, so information about the model organisms accumulates from many perspectives, and this information becomes increasingly integrated over time. Second, I argue that the analog of model organisms, which we can refer to as model cultural systems, provides analogous epistemic benefits for the study of cultural evolution. Or, at least, a model cultural system would provide those epistemic benefits if it existed. Third, I argue that patented technology has all the hallmarks of an excellent model system for at least three important aspects of cultural evolution: the way traits flow in the hyperparental genealogies that are characteristic of cultural evolution, the openended innovation characteristic of many cultural systems, and the new automated methods and tools for mining huge digital data sets to visualize and quantify the evolution of cultural traits. Patented technology nicely illustrates these three aspects of cultural evolution and provides a relatively easy way to learn more about all three. Although the standard methodologies for investigating cultural evolution do not include things like model organisms in biology, this is an unfortunate 6","PeriodicalId":230813,"journal":{"name":"Beyond the Meme","volume":"89 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126046721","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"MODELING THE COEVOLUTION OF RELIGION AND COORDINATION IN BALINESE RICE FARMING","authors":"Marshall Abrams","doi":"10.5749/j.ctvnp0krm.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctvnp0krm.10","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":230813,"journal":{"name":"Beyond the Meme","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128082487","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"CREATING COGNITIVE-CULTURAL SCAFFOLDING IN INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH LABORATORIES","authors":"N. Nersessian","doi":"10.5749/j.ctvnp0krm.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctvnp0krm.6","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":230813,"journal":{"name":"Beyond the Meme","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127827947","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"ARCHES AND SCAFFOLDS:","authors":"M. Janssen","doi":"10.5749/j.ctvnp0krm.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctvnp0krm.7","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":230813,"journal":{"name":"Beyond the Meme","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125882598","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"INDEX","authors":"","doi":"10.5749/j.ctvnp0krm.18","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctvnp0krm.18","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":230813,"journal":{"name":"Beyond the Meme","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116112482","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"WICKED SYSTEMS AND THE FRICTION BETWEEN “OLD THEORY AND NEW DATA” IN BIOLOGY, SOCIAL SCIENCE, AND ARCHAEOLOGY","authors":"Claes Andersson, Anton Törnberg, Petter Törnberg","doi":"10.5749/j.ctvnp0krm.16","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctvnp0krm.16","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":230813,"journal":{"name":"Beyond the Meme","volume":"118 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122189659","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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